


Poké what now?

by thenolifequeen



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: F/M, Isekai AU, Mention of Death, Might also be OOC, Read notes to know more, Some plot holes probably, transmigration au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:09:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21885751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenolifequeen/pseuds/thenolifequeen
Summary: As the rain stopped, it was then that she heard an unusual… chirp? Purr? What even was that?, she thought. And for the first time in a while, she stood up and turned to look around her. She wasn’t in the same woods anymore, wasn’t she? Unfamiliar trees, bushes and even sounds started making her feel on edge. Where the hell was she?!OrThe Pokémon Isekai/Transmigration AU no one asked for (feat. romancing Bede).
Relationships: Beet | Bede/Original Character
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! Thanks for checking out my fanfic. 
> 
> I'm writing here to let you know that:
> 
> a) There's a death mention at the beginning of the story (main OC loses her grandma) and there might be some mourning as the story advances.
> 
> b) English isn't my first language and this isn't beta'd so expect some mistakes here and there.
> 
> c) Might end up in hiatus hell, depending on my inspiration/irl stuff.
> 
> d) The Champion (Gloria) and my OC are not the same character. (They don't fill the same role.)
> 
> e) If you were expecting any update on my other fanfics, I'm sorry to say they will forever be in hiatus :(
> 
> And without further ado, enjoy it! :)

She didn’t stop running. 

Not even when her tears started mixing with the cold rain, or when the sound of thunder crashing nearby startled her. It was as if the shortness of breath would numb her pain and make her forget her whole world came crashing down just mere moments ago.

A neighbor had been waiting for her at the entrance of the cabin where she lived, with a grim face and trembling hands. She knew the minute she saw him that something was clearly wrong. It had always been her granny to greet her back whenever she came back from work.

“Thea… Your… Your grandmother has passed away.” The man said, but it didn’t register on Dorothea’s brain until he said it a second time.

Her grandmother, the woman who raised her alone in a quaint cabin in the woods, had silently passed away while she was at work.

“No. You’re lying. Granny! I’m home! Granny! Where are you?!” She pushed him out of the way and barged into her home. 

Silence followed. The warmth that perpetually seemed to be present lighting up the house was gone, and only cold echoes of what it had been remained. Her grandmother was nowhere to be found.

Without looking back, she started running into the woods. And as if the skies also felt her pain, it began to rain heavily, which was normal in the humid summer they were going through that year.

She had known these woods for as long as she could remember and they have constantly been a warm and welcoming place, where she could find solace after long tiring days of work. She would occasionally spot a few squirrels on her morning run, and when she was younger, the songs of birds would always lull her to sleep after playing for a while with her granny.

But that day was different, and she still didn’t know just how different it would turn out to be.

The more she ran, the darker it got. If she had been more aware of her surroundings, she would have long noticed that these weren’t the woods she had known her whole life. Dorothea was far from home.

An uneven root that shouldn’t have been there made her fall on her face, and she just laid there, her never ending sobbing louder than ever, and her soaked through clothes, muddy. But nothing mattered anymore; the only person she cared about was gone, and nothing would make her return.

As the rain stopped, it was then that she heard an unusual… chirp? Purr? What even was that?, she thought. And for the first time in a while, she stood up and turned to look around her. She wasn’t in the same woods anymore, wasn’t she? Unfamiliar trees, bushes and even sounds started making her feel on edge. Where the hell was she?!

These woods were darker than night, and not even the light of the moon could light up her way. She took out her phone, and with it decided to check out the way she came from. Maybe she took a wrong turn somewhere? And were those big eyes staring at her from some tall grass? It didn’t seem to belong to any animal she was familiar with… And the way they stared unblinkingly at her made her feel uneasy… Maybe she should call for help? 

As fate would have it, and in the most cliched trope, her phone had no signal.

The eyes never left her figure, hesitantly watching her. No human ever wandered into these parts of the woods. This one seemed fragile, unstable and hurt. The small Espurr felt bad for her, but he wondered if it was safe to approach her…

She started pacing anxiously. This had never happened to her before, and she was completely sure she knew the woods like the back of her hand. What could have happened? As much as it pained her to review her recent memories, the only thing that felt out of place was the sound of thunder crashing near her as she ran. She didn’t turn to look back then, but had it really been thunder? Maybe it was something else, but what else could have been?

Tears started rolling down her face again, only this time, they were of frustration and anger. She fell back down and rested her back on a nearby tree. Of all the times she could have gotten lost she managed to do so in the worst night ever. It was true that she had nothing left, but… it would have been nice to… see granny one last time, at the funeral…

She supposed her neighbor went after her, or called the police or something by then, but no man-made sound could be heard, other than the lively woods she now was in; with noises completely foreign to her. She began hitting her back against the tree repeatedly, while she cursed loudly.

The creature staring at her became accustomed to her, and decided to be brave and approach her. Slowly, he came out of the tall patches of grass and left a berry next to her as a peace offering. Maybe it would cheer her up?

As soon as she detected movement, which was pretty late, she stopped what she was doing and stared in mild awe and horror as a small purplish beast approached her. 

She had to be dreaming or having some sort of weird hallucination. She had never seen an animal like this. What was it?! A radioactive bear cub?!

Seeing as it meant no harm, she observed intently what it was doing. It was giving her some sort of big blue berry… With slow movements, she reached out to it and smelled it. It seemed harmless and she realized she was starting to get hungry; perhaps it had been several hours since she last ate something, so she gave it a tiny bite. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that good either, nevertheless, she kept nibbling at it.

The creature, happy to see the human accept the delicious berry, ventured even closer to her.

“What are you?” Thea sighed, as she reached out to pet it with a reluctant smile; she had to admit it, it was adorable. The animal liked her touch and purred in contentment. “Hmm… I suppose I should thank you for this berry… Thank you.” She gave it a sad smile. “You live in these woods? How come I’ve never seen you before?” She let out a small private laugh, thinking she had managed to befriend a new kind of crypid, or that she was hallucinating. 

Maybe if she took a photo of it and showed it to people, they would believe her. Her coworkers were certainly as sceptic as they come. “Do you mind if I photograph you?” Ahh… What was she doing? Asking an animal permission to photograph it? Granted, it somehow felt as if it could understand her, but it was still an animal like any other cat or dog, right?

The Espurr tilted his head in confusion, but nodded anyway. He didn’t believe this human would cause him any harm.

Speechless and astonished, Dorothea lifted her phone and snapped a photo, but since it was too dark, she got nothing in the photo. “Ah… I should turn on the flash. Hold on a second, and stay still, please.” He did as he was told, and waited for something to happen. This time, when the flash came, he startled and backed away. “Oh no! No, no, no! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you little guy, come back.” But her pleas went unanswered, as he scurried back to where it came from, slightly scared.

“Ugh I’m such an idiot! Way to go, Thea! You found a new animal and you blew it!” She cursed at herself, but at least she got the photo evidence she wanted. Now she needed to get out of these woods lest something more dangerous appeared.

She felt bad for scaring the little animal away, but she had to find her way out.

“Well, thanks for the berry, I have to go now! If only I knew how to get out of these woods…” She thanked the creature one last time and mumbled the last words to herself.

According to her phone, it had been 3 hours she had been lost in the woods, and still no sign of any help coming her way. Mud caked on her clothes and skin started to dry up, and the few scratches she managed to get in her adrenaline rush were starting to sting.

Unbeknownst to her, Espurr was following her scent several paces behind her. It seemed that despite being scared earlier before, he wished to help her once again since the human had been very kind to him and her pets were top tier.

He yearned to get a trainer to help him become a Meowstic in hopes he could learn to control his unstable power, and he’d been wanting to leave the woods for quite some time now; maybe this was finally his chance. Yes, he had chosen his new trainer. This human was the one.

Dorothea was growing weary and desperate, but she couldn’t stop now. Eventually she’d run into someone, right? Both of her legs ached terribly, and the temperature was starting to drop. If only she could find a way to ask for help…

Meanwhile, not so far away from where she was…

“What do you mean you can’t find my Rapidash?! Preposterous!” An angry young man in his 20s shouted at the poor staff of the Pokémon Nursery in the region’s Route 5.

“We are terribly sorry, Mr. Bede but the storm must have scared her into the woods behind the building. We will organize a search party and look for her at once.” Sweat dropping down their face, one of the staff members said nervously. It was their first week working at the Nursery and they had been too careless; accidentally leaving the backyard’s gate unlocked.

“No need, I’ll look for her myself.” He said as he pushed past them and went into the backyard where most Pokémon were.

“But sir! It could be dangerous at this time of the day, we should wait for daylight.” They tried to stop him.

“Listen here, my poor Rapidash is out there, alone and scared because of you and I’m not staying here any minute longer, understood?!” If looks could kill, that poor teen would be dead by now. They moved out of his way and ran back inside, to alert the rest of the staff, in case the Fairy Type Gym Leader failed to return in the next few hours.

“Ugh, how incompetent.” Bede mumbled as he ventured into the woods alone.

Back to Dorothea, she wasn’t doing so well. Fever was starting to cloud her gaze and her breathing gradually grew heavier. She even thought she had seen a shiny unicorn running her way! It was definitely the fever, she tried to tell herself. But as she collapsed, she definitely heard some hooves near her and warm breathing hit the skin on her shoulder, as the unicorn tried to gather her scent.

As it got brighter, she managed to make out the silhouette of the tiny purple animal she had seen before. Had it followed her all the way? The creature seemed protective of her, standing between her and the unicorn. She feebly raised her hand and pet it. “You came all the way for me? Thank you, little guy.” She said with a thread of voice.

The Rapidash stomped around Dorothea nervously as the Espurr stood protectively between them. Aware that this human needed help, both Pokémon seemingly reached a consensus and stayed with her, to repel other wild Pokémon that might try to harm her.

Dorothea felt her side grow warmer, as the unicorn rested next to her, trying to shield her from the cold of the night. It seemed to be one of the coldest nights of the summer, but she reasoned that it made sense, since they were nearing autumn. It seemed that it had come sooner, after all.  
Those were her last thoughts as she lost consciousness soon after.

It had been around one hour or so since Bede ventured into the woods. He had a few wild Pokémon encounters and he decided to start using max repels, since he didn’t want to waste any more time than necessary. The ground was slippery after the rain and he had fallen more times than he’d like to admit, dirtying the new pair of jeans his friend, the Champion had given him as a birthday present. 

The Champion and him were friends, but he was still having trouble around the concept of having friends. Soon after the league challenge finished, when Gloria took the title of Champion, he also came to enjoy the company of her own friends, begrudgingly. In the beginning it was hard dealing with people that weren’t Gloria or Opal, the old woman who had taken him under her wing when he needed it the most. But as years went by, it somehow became easier finding out that people accepted him as he was, and that he didn’t have to prove anything to anyone to receive their love.

Finally, after his fifth fall, he distinguished a light that could only belong to his Rapidash. Rushing past tall grass patch after tall grass patch, he reached a sight he most definitely had never expected to find. His Rapidash resting next to an unconscious girl and her Espurr.

Immediately, Rapidash stood up and trotted up to him happily, but after getting some reassuring pets from her trainer, she lead him towards the girl, as if telling him to help her. Espurr of course, valiantly stood between them, ready to strike if the human boy or the Rapidash tried anything to bring harm to his new human.

“What happened to her?” Bede asked to no one in particular as he took in the state she was in. With Rapidash urging him to act faster, he approached the girl, standing a few feet away from her, but her Espurr wouldn’t let him get near her; scratching him if he got too close. Frustrated, he explained that he meant no harm, and that he was going to help her, to take her somewhere safe.

Finally the Espurr let him enter her personal space and Bede picked her up, placed her on Rapidash’s back and jumped on after her. Her skin was hot to the touch, so they had to hurry back to the Nursery, where at least they would have a med kit that could patch her up a little until a doctor came to see her. Before going, he searched for the Espurr’s Pokéball, but she didn’t have anything on her except her phone. Sighing, he got down and picked up the small Pokémon as well, and once the three of them were on Rapidash’s back, they rushed back to the Nursery. Luckily, Bede had an excellent sense of direction.

It was dawn when they reached the Nursery’s backyard, and the same employee was there to welcome him back, full of apologies. Pssh! As if he’d care about that bullshit right now, he had more important things to worry about.

“Call for a doctor, it’s urgent!” He said as he got off Rapidash and carefully picked up the girl and her Espurr.

“Yes, sir! Uh… What?” The Nursery employee made a salute, but then confusedly stared at the Fairy Gym Leader.

“Get a doctor. Now!”

When they saw the girl, they hurried back inside, to alert the owner of the Nursery and make the phone call.

Dorothea stirred awake with all the rough movements Bede was making. When she saw the fluffy pale locks that framed worried purple eyes, she let out a dreamy sigh. “Are you an angel? Am I dead?” Her voice startled him, and he looked down and saw that she had regained consciousness.

“Huh? What?” He blurted out and got flustered when he saw her dazed smile despite himself, wondering if he had heard her right.

The small animal that she met in the woods seemed delighted to see her awake and blocked her vision of the pretty angel, making it obvious she was still alive, and what she had lived back there wasn’t some kind of hallucination.

“Oh…” She let out as she closed her eyes and snuggled closer to the angel and the little creature. They were warm, and she was shivering cold. She could worry about being improper when she felt better.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!
> 
> Today's chapter is a little shorter than the last one, but I wanted to publish something soon. Thanks for the love this fanfic has received, I'm glad you guys liked my little idea. And I'm still having trouble nailing down how I picture grown up Bede's personality to be, but I hope you stay for the ride.
> 
> Enjoy!

After Bede’s arrival, the Pokémon Nursery was a hectic mess. They were still trying to deal with the fact of having a Pokémon escape from them, and none other than one of the famous Fairy Gym Leader’s! If news got out, it could might as well mean the end of their business. And the mysterious girl that he had found in the woods, was a mystery in itself. What was she doing back there? The woods were off limits even for most of the workers at the Nursery; and her brave little Espurr was very protective of her, only letting Bede get close to her, as if seemingly having reached an accord with him. Powerful Gym Leaders were sure a sight to behold!

The girl was now resting in one of the spare rooms the Nursery had with Bede by her side, waiting for the doctor from Turffield to arrive. She had been given first aid and a fresh set of clothes. It took some convincing the little Pokémon to let someone from the staff to let them look after her wounds and even after, he would stay very close to her.

Bede’s mind felt like it was running at a hundred mile per hour, causing a slight headache on the exhausted young man. After settling down his missing Rapidash matter, he now found himself reluctantly looking after a girl who appeared to be around his age. He sighed and stood up from where he was sitting, a chair in front of the bed she was in, and started pacing. The Espurr stared at him curiously when he did so, but settled down when he made no move to approach.

This was supposed to be a quick nightly trip to get his Pokémon and go back to Ballonlea, without Opal noticing his absence but with the amount of time he was taking, she would have surely realized by now that he was gone, since she had always been an early riser. The old lady was hard to predict sometimes even for him, his protegee and successor. It had taken some time for Bede to match her pace outside battles, but seeing as he excelled in most matters thrown at him in a gracious way, Opal was proud of him, and glad to have taken him in. He had been perfect to fill her role from the very beginning, or so she told him.

Suddenly, a small gasp coming from the girl made him turn his attention. She was breathing heavily and looking somehow scared, probably having woken up from a nightmare; but it appeared she had regained consciousness for a while, as woozy as she still looked.

 _“Where am I?”_ She thought, but when she saw the Pokémon on top of her, everything that happened the day before came back to her and tears started gathering around her eyes, as she petted him. _“I’m not home anymore, aren’t I? It wasn’t a dream?”_ Dorothea wished with all her heart that she could go back and see her grandma once again, but she knew it was impossible. The Espurr, though happy she was awake and petting him, seemed distressed at his human’s own troubled expression. She still hadn’t realized someone else was in the room with her.

Bede didn’t know what to do in this kind of situation, it had never happened to him before, and usually the only people he interacted with the most were Opal, Gloria, and some of her friends. His old self would have mocked this girl, but now he knew better; part of growing up he supposed. “Uhm… Are you ok?” He asked awkwardly, not really sure how to approach her. “The doctor will be here soon, so… uh… hang in there?” He said, and mentally facepalmed himself fully aware of how awfully awkward he sounded. Ugh, if it wasn’t for the Espurr someone else would be in here instead of him. He wondered why he still acted like a wild Pokémon towards others, wasn’t this girl his trainer?

Thea, now aware that she wasn’t alone, tried her best to sit down and turned to him. It was the angel! He probably was the one that had saved her, she thought. “Where am I?” And only now she realized how thirsty she was, after hearing her raspy voice. “Can I have a glass of water, please?”

“Oh, sure! I’m sorry, I’m not used to this.” He fetched a jar of water from a nearby desk and poured it into a glass of water as he kept talking. “We are at the Pokémon Nursery in Route 5.” She furrowed her brows in confusion as she took the glass and then dawned it in seconds. “Careful, we don’t want you to choke. Here, I’ll leave the jar next to you so you can serve yourself.” He set it down at a small bedside table and watched her pour herself another glass slowly.

Why would there be a nursery in the middle of the woods… And she couldn’t hear any baby crying, was this really a nursery? “Sorry, I don’t really know where that is… By the way, are you seeing the same thing I am seeing? What is this creature?” She pointed at the animal that kept staring at her like she was its world.

“It’s an Espurr. You don’t recognize it?” Bede was beside himself. Did she have a bad case of amnesia? She had to be kidding, right? She shook her head, still confused. “You don’t recognize your own Pokémon?”

“My… Poké- what now? This little guy is mine? It just started following me in the woods and gave me some kind of fruit… Oh! That’s right! There was also a unicorn! I think… You must have seen it, right? Although I saw it right before passing out, so it must have been my mind playing tricks on me.” Her face lighted up immediately at recalling the beautiful unicorn with a shining mane, completely unbothered by the fact that the man’s eyebrows were so far up his forehead that his bangs covered them completely. She did just say that she saw a unicorn, anyone would probably react the same way, right?

“A unicorn? What are you talking about? You mean my Rapidash?” He said as he took out his Rotom Phone with his Pokédex to show her what he was talking about. The new and updated Pokédex had been courtesy of Hop, assistant of the current Pokémon Professor, and childhood friend of the Champion herself. During their own trials more than a decade ago, Bede was in a bad place, and took out his anger on the two of them. He still had to work out some issues with Hop, but for the sake of Gloria they both tried to be on better terms, at least around her. However, he still enjoyed beating him every now and then when they crossed paths.

Thea was surprised at seeing the phone’s case strange features. The eyes on the thing moved! And it was smiling and giggling like it was alive!

Bede searched for the entry on Rapidash in his ‘Dex and showed it to her. “Is this the one you saw?” He asked her.

“Yes! That’s exactly it! Is it common in this area?” As she peered into it, her Espurr wanted to take a look as well, curious as ever.

“Well, not exactly. They are native to the Glimwood Tangle, a forest surrounding Ballonlea, the town I live in. Though it’s easier to find their pre-evolution, Ponyta.” He explained and changed the entry to show her Ponyta. Seeing her child-like wonder told him that this was the first time she had ever laid eyes on the Pokémon, and for some silly reason, he couldn’t stop staring at her, making him feel weird inside.

“This seems like out of a fairytale! You have to show it to me!” She attempted to get out of bed, her Espurr eager to finally get out jumped down, but as soon as she set her foot down on the floor, a wave of dizziness hit her, making her stumble forward, where Bede automatically reached out and held her in his steady arms. The Rotom Phone was floating around him, tempted to snap some photos to show to Gloria, but without his trainer’s command, he didn’t do it.

“Careful. You still have a fever, you should rest for now, I promise I’ll show you a real Ponyta when I can.” He smiled and gently pushed her back to bed, where she remained sat down with her face beet red. The Espurr climbed back up and sat down on her lap. “By the way, my name is Bede; what’s yours?”

“Dorothea… Thea for short.” She said softly, while looking anywhere but him. She decided to pet her new charge some more to calm her nerves, and the Espurr gladly accepted.

“May I ask you a question?” After a few moments of awkward silence, Bede inquired and she nodded. “Before coming into the building, you may not even remember it but what was it that you called me? Angel?” She startled immediately.

“Oh! No, no, no! I didn’t call you Angel or anything… That is… My creature’s name… Yes! That’s its name!” She laughed nervously at the oh so perfect excuse for the dumb comment she had made before, but it was a cute name for the animal she now had.

“Is that so? Didn’t you say he just started following you back in the woods?” He squinted his eyes accusingly. Of course, Bede didn’t believe her at all.

“Yes… Yes, I did. But it’s a fitting name for such a cute little guy, isn’t it, Angel?” She was talking to her Espurr, but Bede felt a small pang of jealousy, and immediately tried to dampen it. She was a stranger, for fuck’s sake! He did think that the nickname had been aimed at him, back then. Whatever an Angel was, the way she had said it sounded nice even if she was burning up in fever, her voice had been sweet, and it still was.

A knock on the door came soon after, the doctor had finally arrived. Bede told her to lay back in bed as he went to get the door. The doctor introduced herself and went straight to see her patient. This time the Espurr didn’t protest, since he felt sure his human was going to be ok, now that she was awake.

Meanwhile, Bede used the opportunity to call Gloria. She’d been forced to become an early riser due to her Champion duties, and he was sure she was already awake. He was starting to suspect this girl was somehow out of this world and he needed to let the Champion know. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened since the former Chairman of the Pokémon League attempted to bring the Darkest Day onto the Galar region, but if this seemingly innocent girl was indeed from another world, _something_ had to be brewing in the horizon, and it was best to be prepared.


End file.
